


Prelude to the End

by SkyLeaf



Series: The Faces of Those Left Behind [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Apocalypse, Despair, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Breath of the Wild
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:15:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26361748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyLeaf/pseuds/SkyLeaf
Summary: Though the first warning came as little more than a rumble, by the time it became clear that Hyrule Castle was doomed to fall, the chain of events preceding both the Great Calamity and the Miracle of Fort Hateno had already been set in motion.
Series: The Faces of Those Left Behind [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782145
Kudos: 2





	Prelude to the End

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic I have been working on for a while, and now, after having watched the new trailer for Age of Calamity, I finally made myself sit down to actually post it. Anyway, I hope that you will like this :)

At first, the change was barely noticeable. A glass that began to travel towards the edge of the table the moment she turned from it, only stopped by the cook noticing its attempt at escaping and stopping it before it got the chance to fall to the floor. The girl to her right tripping over nothing as the cliff around them shook, having to take a quick series of steps forwards to remain upright. It was nothing; she just looked towards the cook, sent her a little nod and a smile before picking up the glass to, with the tray balanced directly in front of her, head out into the long and narrow corridors that cut through the stones around them.

The peace lasted for little more than a minute, and when it ended, it felt like it had only been able to remain intact for those last moments to allow the chaos that erupted to fully prepare itself.

The staircase around her was steep, built to allow the servants of the castle to quickly move between the different levels, reaching the towers in only a couple of minutes even if they had been in the kitchens moments before. In the end, that was what saved her, the fact that she had had the chance to move closer towards the surface in the seconds between the first impact and the one that came after. But even then, even as she stood there, leaning against the wall as she tried to brace herself, it did not feel like anything was happening. The tray jumped a little in her hand, and she had to press her back against the cold rocks behind her to keep herself from falling down the stairs, but she would be fine.

“Everyone! Get up! Away from the lower levels!”

The warning tore through the air, causing her to immediately look up, away from the breakfast she had been meant to bring to the council. There, just a few metres away from her, where the corridor made a sharp turn, she saw how a guard, sprinting towards where she was standing, only barely slowed down enough as he turned around the corner to keep himself from continuing directly into the wall in front of him.

He was still yelling, she realised as she looked up at him and saw the way he was gesturing towards her, every single one of his movements sharp and quick, almost like he had already grabbed the sword she could only spot the hilt of behind his shoulder. He was yelling, but she could not hear what he was saying anymore. The second impact made sure of that.

On the tray, the glass—the one the cook had been kind enough to help her with—shook. It was not alone. As she stood there, staring up at the guard, halfway wondering what was happening, why he was looking directly past her, acting like he was seeing something she had yet to spot, she felt how the world around her trembled, first a little, dust falling from stone ceiling above her, but gradually increasing until the movements around her was all she could feel.

A particularly sudden movement shook the cliff around her, and she was thrown first forwards and then back again, almost as if an outside force had grabbed her and thrown her into the wall. Pain bloomed in the back of her skull, making her instinctively reach up to press against the spot. Something warm came away, but she only barely had time to register what had happened—bleeding, she could not be bleeding not here, not inside Hyrule Castle, the fortress that would be the last stronghold of the country—before the glass saw the chance to resume its escape, jumping off the side of the tray she was somehow still holding even then. It broke against the sharp edge of the stair below her, a pool of blood-red wine forming at her feet and sharp shards covering the area around her.

Almost without thinking, she bent down to pick it up, using her right arm to keep herself upright, pressing it against the wall across from her as the earthquake came close to making her fall down the stairs. The next second, someone had grabbed onto her arm, pulling her up and away from the glass with so much force that it was only the pain radiating from the back of her head that allowed her to bite back a pained yell.

“Don’t!” the guard warned her, bringing her closer to him as he took a step backwards. He was dragging her along with him, she realised, moving up, away from the stairs and towards the upper levels of the castle, holding onto her elbow as he turned around on the narrow staircase, pushing her in front of him as he continued. “It doesn’t matter; nothing does right now other than the fact that we have to evacuate!”

Evacuate. Finally, something felt real. Evacuate, that was something she knew what meant. But along with the word and the horror of realising that she was awake, that the blood and pain from the back of her head was not something she was dreaming about, came the realisation of just what that meant.

An attack. There had been an attack on Hyrule Castle, and now, they would all have to leave. Instinctively, she cast a glance to the side, her legs finding the rhythm of sprinting up the stairs, trying to gauge what had happened. The sudden earthquake was the first thing she thought of, the thought that it might not have been the work of nature occurring to her half a second later.

Her lungs felt like they were burning as they finally reached the end of the stairs, the guard not wasting as much as a second before he began to lead her down another corridor, but she knew that it was not only brought on by the fact that he kept pushing her to run faster.

Finally, she was able to find the air along with the words to turn to him. “Are we under attack? Where—who did it?”

She had not hoped for much. Even just a simple ‘from the east’ would have been enough to let her know everything she needed to know, whether the Akkala Citadel had fallen, if Hateno was still safe, if she would have to be evacuated to one of the villages that seemed to be everywhere in Hyrule Fields or if she would be able to return home to Hateno to be safe while the central part of Hyrule would act as a barrier between the battles and the refugees. But it would appear that even that had been too much to hope for, as the guard simply shook his head, not slowing down for even a moment as he guided her through a set of double doors. She did not stop to tell him that they were entering the area meant only for guards and recruits, that she had nothing to do there. Even if the look of pure focus on his face, the way he had not wasted a single unnecessary word, had not already taken care of that, the sound of the castle shaking around her, something heavy hitting the floor above them, making her jump a little, would already have been enough to let her know that no one would attempt to stop her from entering. So that was what she did.

Inside, the room seemed to have been hit even worse by the chaos, or at least that was the impression the sight of her surroundings left her with, the guards weaving around each other, spears, swords, and arrows glinting in the light of the shaking lanterns. Once, she would have sworn that the kitchens were the most chaotic place in the castle with the way it felt almost like a wall had been built around her whenever she would try to leave to bring the meals up to the banqueting hall during the festivals, but now, she could see that she had been wrong. This really was the essence of pure chaos.

“Come with me!” the guard grabbed her hand, and without another word, he began to drag her directly through the crowd, pushing through the yells for someone to bring the swords through and for the archers to head to their positions. “Don’t let go!”

If it had been different, if she had not heard the rumbling sound coming from the ground below, if she had not accidentally looked into the eyes of a soldier to her right and seen the panic written across his face, she might have asked him to slow down, perhaps even asked for an explanation, but as it was, she focused on nothing other than holding onto his hand as she followed him through the room.

They continued through the castle that way for what felt like an eternity, the guard constantly turning around a corner, casting a long glance towards the end of the corridor before quickening his pace once more, making her struggle to keep up. More than once, he opened up a door, only to turn away and continue his sprint towards the end of the corridor the moment he caught sight of the panic on the other side of the door.

Perhaps that was what scared her the most. The fact that it seemed almost like he was trying to avoid a crowd the size of the one they had had to make their way through before. People around them, and in particularly the guards who would be armed, meant that they would be protected if the castle really was under attack, or at least that was what she had thought. But for every time the guard in front of her opened a door only to pull her away from it again, the more the horrible though that perhaps he knew something she had yet to realise, that maybe he was fearing getting stuck in the middle of one of the crowds, began to make its way into her mind.

“Hey!” she called out, trying her best not to let her voice betray her by shaking. “You have to tell me what is happening! Do you know what made the ground shake?”

She was certain that he was going to ignore her the way he had done up until then, that he would simply respond by running even faster, but, to her surprise, he turned around. The next second, she wished that he had not done that.

Up until then, she had been able to somewhat fool herself into picturing him with an annoyed expression on his face, a glint in his eyes that told her that he was not happy about the fact that he had clearly received orders to help with the evacuation rather than to fight in the battle, that he had ignored her because he resented her for being the reason he was here, in a deserted hallway, rather than among his friends as they prepared themselves for letting the arrows rain down from their place atop the mountain. But that was not the person who turned around to look at her. No, this was someone who could only be a couple of years older than her, someone who was trying his best to put on even the thinnest mask of calmness, but who was betrayed both by the way he had clenched his jaw and how the fear was shining in his eyes as he looked down at her.

For a moment, no one said anything, both of them only standing there, her almost instinctively taking a step back as she struggled to fit the surprise into what little information she had about what was going on around her, and him swallowing twice before he finally forced out a word.

“I… I don’t know.”

It felt almost like it grew to fill the entirety of the corridor, seeping into the cracked stones around them, covering the floor the same way the dust that was still falling from the ceiling did.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” she heard her voice rise. Her friend would have told her that she was beginning to act too much like one of the unruly horses in the stables, the ones that seemed to find a sense of joy in making life difficult for the soldiers.

Her friend. It was not until that moment that the realisation that she should have found her a long time ago struck, making her swirl around, knowing full well that she would not find her standing behind her, but unable to keep the tiny chance of that happening from making her move.

Still, if she could feel the panic press against what little there was left of the hopeless attempt at making herself believe that everything was all right, that was nothing compared to the way the guard moved, his frantic gestures without any apparent meaning to them being all that let her know that he had heard her. He was shaking, she noted, barely able to keep his voice under control as he answered her. “I mean that I have not heard of an army approaching—I don’t know what is happening!” he held up his hands, for a moment making her think that it was in an attempt at keeping her from asking any questions he would not be able to answer, but then, bringing the motion to an end, he wrapped his arms around himself, making it resemble an imitation of a hug. “Everything just began to shake, and I just thought that—that the people working somewhere in the lower levels of the castle, well…”

He did not need to finish the sentence. The memory of the stairs, the way something heavy had fallen over, of the way it had felt to hear the sound of hundreds of kilos of stone being moved around below her, it all made sure that she knew exactly what his reasons for sprinting over to yank her up from the ground had been.

She would have loved to say that she thought to ask him about who would have saved the cook, the girl who had smiled after almost falling over, and everyone who had also been with her in the kitchens that day, but their names only moved through her mind for half a second before being replaced with the one person she really wanted to see in that moment. “And the other recruits,” she asked, “do you know where they are right now?”

He shook his head. “No. I—I have no idea about where anyone is right now. To tell the truth, I doubt that I am even supposed to be here at all, but there was no one with me when it happened, so I just ran…”

His voice grew thicker, the tears almost making it impossible for her to understand what she was saying. That, or perhaps it was a sign that the blood that was drying on her hands had been the last thing she should have worried about. But she did hear him.

There were no orders, at least not anyone that made it clear what every guard was supposed to do, what their tasks would be, and where they would be for the upcoming battle. There would be no battle, no one to plan and organise the defence. They were left to fend for themselves.

“But…” she could hear her voice growing weaker, and as much as she hated herself for not being stronger, she knew that it was because she was fearing for herself and for her friends, rather than for the kingdom, “I… what about everyone else? What about my friends—what about those who are still left in the basement? Should we not head back down to tell them to leave as well?”

It almost sounded like she was trapped inside a thundercloud, loud crashes and the sound of something breaking surrounding her as the castle shook once more, immediately letting her know what the answer to that question would be. There was no need for the guard to bother to answer her—no need for him to waste time on telling her what she already knew—and yet, he did just that, shaking his head, a pained expression flickering across his face. “No! Look, either they have found a way out, or it is too late for them already.”

The dust made her throat ache as she opened her mouth to come up with a counterargument, but he did not even give her the chance to say a single word, having already halfway turned around, continuing to follow the plan she was only then realising was little more than a desperate attempt at making it outside the castle in time.

This time, she followed without a word. What would there even have been to say? That she would not leave without her friends, preferring to die inside the castle? That she had been tasked with saving a portion of the books in the royal library and that she had never failed to collect them all during all the exercises that had been meant to prepare them for this exact event? The truth was that there was nothing to say, so she did not even try. Instead, she kept her mouth shut, feeling how the dust in the air made her eyes water, tears soon rolling down her cheeks as she followed the guard down the corridor. He did not hold onto her hand this time, nor was there any need for it. If she fell, he would have to leave her behind, she knew that now. The look in his eyes as well as the sound of hundreds of years of history threatening to crumble above them made sure of that.

They sprinted around a corner, and for once, she was grateful for the blood she could feel trickle down her back, no doubt drawing a red line between her shoulder blades. With everything falling apart around her, it was almost nice to have something simple to focus on. There was no need to think about the fact that she had no idea what was happening around her, that they had no way of knowing what would be behind the next closed door, that the pain in her lungs and the dust in the air made it difficult for her to breathe. No, right then, the entire world consisted of two things: the need to continue running and the sharp pain radiating from the back of her head, two things that each had a clear answer. Don’t slow down and get to place where she could apply pressure to the wound.

Little by little, their surroundings began to almost resemble something she could recognise. But only somewhat. For though she could look to her right and realise that she had seen the tapestries before, that she would normally have made sure to make her posture a bit straighter just in case she would meet her friend, now, as the air itself seemed to have changed, tinged with purple, it all felt new, strange in a way she had never thought she would find it.

However, it would appear that the guard had found a bit of calmness in their surroundings, for he finally slowed a little, gesturing for her to move closer towards him as he took a step towards a set of double doors in front of them. She did so immediately, her gaze landing on the sharp blade of his sword almost without her thinking about it. Her heart was beating away in her chest, faster than anything she had ever heard before, but she did not know if it was a change that had been brought on by the sight of the grey metal or if it had been that way for far longer, the weapon simply allowing her to realise that her body was preparing itself for the attack even now.

“Look,” the guard whispered. Something had crept into his voice, an almost apologetic tone. For some reason, it scared her more than anything else she had experienced during those last few minutes. It was silly, she knew that, knew that after everything, the fact that he was looking at her like he was already regretting what his next words would have to be was the last thing she should worry about in that moment, and yet, that was how she felt as she stood there, watching as he opened and closed his mouth for several seconds before finally being able to produce a sound, “the library is right behind these doors. Once you are there, you will know how to leave the castle, right?”

She could have cried. She could have lied, shook her head and said that, no, she was not familiar with that area of the castle. She could have grabbed onto his arm and demanded for him to come with her, for him not to leave her behind now. But she did none of those things. Instead, she forced herself to take a deep breath, the air feeling like fire in her lungs, and nodded. “Yes, I do.” for a fraction of a second, she thought that she would tell him about all the times she had carried books from the library down into the basements back when she had honestly believed that they would launch a counterattack should the defences of the castle be breached, but the words died in her throat the next second. It did not matter how much time she had spent learning how to balance the tower of books. Nothing mattered now, nothing other than finding her friend and getting both of them out alive. “Will you…?” the question stuck to the air between them the same way the dust clung to the insides of her lungs.

“Yes.” he nodded. “I… I don’t know what I will do, but I just… I can’t leave. Not now. Not when…”

It was clear what he would say. He could not leave when he knew that there was nothing to do for the hundreds of servants and other civilians who had no weapons or chance of defending themselves. Had she been a better person, she would perhaps have tried to convince him to come with her, told him that he should think about saving himself, but as it was, all she could think about was the fact that had it not been for his need to ensure that everyone around him was safe, had it not been for the fact that that need seemed to mean more to him than his own safety, she would still be trapped below ground, stuck on some staircase as the ceiling above her struggled to fight against the weight of the castle.

So, rather than attempting to convince him to leave with her, she simply reached out towards him. His tunic felt dirty, that special kind of dry and yet wet sensation that could only be created by blood and dust, but she ignored it to instead rest her hand on his arm for a moment, hoping that it was enough for him to know that she would have brought him in for an embrace if she had dared to move. “Thank you,” she whispered, hearing how her voice was growing weaker already, “I can’t thank you enough.”

“Survive.” he sent her a humourless smile. “Just make sure that you survive. That way, I will know that I did not waste my time.” he did not give her a chance to respond, having already turned around to sprint away from her. As much as she would have liked to pretend otherwise, to convince herself that she was imagining things, allowing her fears to control her, she knew that the sight of him reaching up to draw his sword was not a fantasy.

Even then, she tried her best to swallow back the sob that threatened to make its way to the surface. She had to get out; she had to find her friend and repay the guard by saving both of them. If she allowed herself to stop now, it would be little more than spitting in the face of everything he had risked for her. So although she would rather have sat down to cry, would rather have torn off a piece of her dress to at least have a way to somewhat clean herself and get rid of the blood, she forced herself to stand up straight, turning around to face the doors leading into the library. Everything would be all right in the end. It was just an exercise. In a moment, she would have gathered the books the housekeeper had mentioned after her name, making her way towards the boats that would bring them to Hyrule Garrison along with the other maids. She just had to continue on for a little longer.

Moving so suddenly that she did not give herself a chance to doubt the decision, she pushed open the doors and burst into the library.

It was quiet. Before, back when all she had been able to think of had been the chaos that had filled the barracks, she would have thought that she would enjoy the peace of an empty room, but now, as she stepped into the library and heard the sound of her shoes against the floor echo through the room, thrown back at her by the ceiling up high above her, she knew that this was worse. It was so much worse, the eerie silence growing around her until it was all she could feel. Being alone, she could not think of anything worse. Even if the guard had been a stranger, and one who had yanked her up from the floor only moments before, at least his presence had meant that she was not left alone with her thoughts. Forcing herself to take another step forwards and letting step the next follow that, she kept her gaze firmly fixed on the stairs in front of her. She would just have to reach them, would just have to make her way up those last few steps, and then she would be in the corridor where mere minutes would be all that would separate her from safety. Her friend would wait for her there. When the alternative was too horrible to think about without stopping, sitting down to find herself unable to stand up again, she had to believe that.

She was only a few steps away from her destination when she noticed how one of the bookcases had seemingly been thrown from its spot against the wall, having moved until it was standing almost a metre away from where it was supposed to be, books lying on the ground in front of it, some of them having been opened up in the fall, only to now lay on the cold, stony floor with bended pages.

In that moment, all she could see was the wineglass falling off the edge of the tray and the tense second that had followed before it had finally hit the floor. Perhaps that was why she found herself straying from the path that would take her to safety, casting one long glance towards the stairs to her left before moving towards the bookcase. Maybe it was just a sign that her mind was trying its best to protect her from the reality of what was happening, blinding her to not only the fact that it did not matter that the bookcase had moved, but to how she could not hope to be able to push the heavy piece of furniture on her own as well. No matter what, fact was that she found herself stepping closer to the bookcase, carefully avoiding the books to instead head over to grip onto the edges of one of the shelves. Then, she pushed, pressing her feet against the floor as she put her entire bodyweight into trying to force the bookcase to move back.

Just as she had thought, it did not even budge, simply remaining right where it had been from the very beginning.

That was when she saw it.

Having leaned forwards a bit, just enough to try to catch her breath before trying again, she saw that, where there should have been more stone and solid wall, there was instead what looked almost like a doorway with the door removed. The bookcase. Looking back at it, the final piece of a puzzle she had not even known she had been about to solve found its right place, allowing her to see the full picture. There was a secret room behind the bookcase; that was the reason for why none of the other bookcases had moved as much as that one.

Had she had even just a tiny piece of rational thought left, she would have forgot everything about the secret room and left, sprinting up the stairs in a desperate attempt at regaining just a little of the time she had wasted there. But she did not do that. All she could think of in that moment as she moved around the bookcase, barely able to squeeze through the narrow opening between the wall and the back of the bookcase, was that she did not want to be left in the dark again. She had been told that she would be safe, that Hyrule Castle was the best place to be in the event of an attack, that they would be protected by both the Akkala Citadel as well as the general geography of Hyrule. That had been a lie. They would not be able to lie to her again; she would make sure of that.

So although she could feel the rough surface of the wall press against her ribcage, she took another step forwards. In the back of her mind, she knew that she was in the worst place she could possibly have been should the ground beneath her begin to shake again, but it was nothing when compared to the force that led her forwards, made her push through, pulling her arm along with her. The next moment, she was free of the bookcase; though that was the last thing she could think about as she looked up and saw where she was.

It seemed to be some kind of study, at least if the sight of the desk in front of her was any indication. But even then, that was the last thing on her mind. Instead, she found herself taking a step back at the sight of the king of Hyrule sitting there right in front of her. He was there, sitting on the chair in front of the desk, looking towards her, an expression on his face that she did not know what to think of. However, there was one thing she knew for certain as she stood there: he was even more surprised to see her than she was to see him, as unbelievable as that seemed.

She did not even think, simply acting upon the years of having worked in the castle, moving through the corridors as she did her best to stay out of the way of the generals, the ministers, and the court, not even for a moment imagining herself ever meeting the royal family. But something must have changed along with the rest of her world, for the moment before she would have sunk down in a deep curtsey, she caught herself, forcing herself to hide the beginning of the motion as nothing more than surprise. Daring to look up at the king, she could see the same kind of surprise that was whirling through her mind reflected in his eyes, and for a moment, she caught herself wondering what she was doing, why she remained standing, stubbornly refusing to look away from him. She could almost feel the hidden taunt behind her actions, how she was asking him what he would do, if he had any power left in the situation.

He was the first to look away. She did not miss that. With a look in his eyes that made it almost seem like he was seconds away from bursting into tears, he looked away from her, his gaze instead landing on an indeterminable point above her right shoulder as he spoke. “You should not be here. Go. I don’t know how long this castle has left, but I believe that you might just so be able to make it out alive if you leave now.”

Not a word about her presence in what was clearly meant to be a private study, barely more than a raised eyebrow at the way she had halted halfway through her greeting. He simply sat there, speaking with a tone of voice that made sure that she knew how he was mentally far away from the castle and everything happening within it.

The princess. The realisation made her take an involuntary step backwards. She had been meant to head out to once again try to reach her powers. Looking back over at the king, it was not difficult for her to guess where the princess was, not with the way a map still lay on the table behind the king, the mountains and seas that created the borders of Hyrule recognisable to her even from where she was standing. The thought that perhaps her mother was doing the same, that perhaps she had heard of the attack and was currently trying her best to gather information about her whereabouts from the secure location she had to believe they had been evacuated to, felt like someone had thrown a bucket of icy water at her.

“Your Majesty.” the slightly lowered voice and the way she made sure to look at the ground rather than the king came too late, she knew that, but right then, it was all she could do, sinking down while it felt like the struggle between wanting to leave immediately and the need to not leave someone who showed every sign of missing his family behind threatened to tear her apart. “I have to insist for you to come with me now. It should still be possible for you to reach the docks, if Your Majesty would—”

“No.” he waved the suggestion aside before she had even got the chance to reach the end of the sentence. “No, I will not accompany you to the docks. Instead, I think that I will stay here. Here with my memories.” he must have known that she was already gathering up the strength needed to make one last effort, to try one last time to make him leave with her, for he sent her a little smile, the way he raised his hand being enough to silence her in seconds. “And, please, call me Rhoam. After today, I think that I would rather have people remember me as that than for them to think of me as the last king of Hyrule.”

He had given up. Maybe it was a sign that she was finally beginning to give in to the full effects of the wound, but until then, she had somewhat been able to cling to the hope that there would be some kind of counterattack, that it was only a matter of time before the soldiers and guards who had always seemed to inhabit every corner of the castle, blocking her path in the hallways with their loud voices and heavy weapons, would find the strength and courage to fend off the enemy. But now, standing here, across from the king, so close that she would have been able to reach out and drag him along with her, only to hear him accept that this was the end of not only the castle but Hyrule as well with the same kind of reluctant sadness in his eyes that had made her mother cry when she had said goodbye, it became apparent that that had never been more than a foolish sense of hope.

And still, she tried. Taking a step forwards, for once not caring at all about proper etiquette and manners, she shook her head. “No! There is still so much we can still do, you just have to be there to give the orders!” she had not dared to hope for him to listen to her, to think that her outburst would be enough to make him leave with her, but as she saw how he simply looked up at her with an expression in his eyes that told her that he did not even have the energy to argue with her right then, her heart sank, the despair in her voice growing stronger with every word. “Come now, you have to leave with me—I have to make sure that you will survive this.” casting a quick glance around the room, her gaze fell on the back of the bookcase. Hurrying past the king, she pushed against the wooden panelling, determined to make herself believe that the lack of space between the wall and the bookcase was all that kept the king there. “You… just…” a push, and she had to fight to regain her breath, “have to follow me, and then I will do everything within my power to ensure your safety.”

For a moment, she almost thought that she had succeeded. Rising from his chair, the king quickly crossed the room, sending a long glance along the tiny passage created between the stones and the panelling. But rather than seeing reason and helping her, he simply reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder as he gently pulled her away from her struggle with the bookcase.

“No. I will not leave with you, nor will you do your best to ensure my safety,” he said, almost whispering the words. Even then, even with the sound of her heartbeat echoing in her ears, every thud sending tendrils of pain through her body, she would not have been able to miss a single word as he continued. “I have a daughter about your age. My only joy in these moments is the fact that she is not here. Only an hour ago, I blamed myself for that fact, thought that I had made a mistake by ordering her to make the journey to the Lanayru Province, but now I see that it might have been the only good thing I have ever done and will ever do for her, and that, even then, it was fate and nothing else that allowed me to turn my failure into a blessing. She is not here. She is far away from this castle, hopefully somewhere where she will not be harmed by my mistakes. I only wished that I could have done the same for you—for everyone within the castle and all the people whom I convinced that Castle Town was the safest place to be, all the people who will have to pay for my arrogance and the way I thought that I could predict the attack. Truly, I can never apologise enough for my mistakes, and now, I know that I will never get the opportunity to do so. So allow me to try one last thing to pay back just a little of what I owe. Let me tell you to listen to me when I say that the only thing that matters to me right now is for you to understand that you are the one who should go to the docks and be brought to safety, not me. Listen as I beg you to put as much distance between yourself and Hyrule Castle as you possibly can. Listen when I tell you to think of yourself and no one else. Will you do me that last favour?” at the last word, he looked down at her, his eyebrows drawn together in what she might once have thought was annoyance. Now, she was not so sure what to make of it.

But there was one thing, she knew for a fact. Her friend was still out there, possibly searching for her, and she would not leave until she knew that they would both be safe. Shrugging off the king’s hand, a gesture that would have appeared impossible to her only hours ago, she let the icy feeling of fear seep into her voice. “I still have friends within this castle. I will not leave without them. Just because you have given up doesn’t mean that I will do the same, nor does it make me the fool for refusing to listen to you. You said it yourself: you made the mistake. Well, listen to me when I tell you that I might be about to make mine, but that that still does not give you the right to judge me. Now, I will have to leave you here if you do not move to follow me immediately.” she spun around on her heel, making sure not to look behind her as she once again began the slow process of making her way out of the room, moving centimetre by centimetre as she felt the rough stone wall rub against her hands, the skin becoming sore and red within moments.

He did not respond, nor did she expect him to.

The library seemed even emptier as she once again found herself standing beneath the vaulted ceiling, almost like the knowledge of the king’s presence she now possessed only served to show her how she had been abandoned by everyone in the end. They all had. Her, the guard who had been kind enough to help her and whose kindness would no doubt cost him his life in the end, making him waste his only chance of escape on a stranger, as well as her friends. They had all been left behind to fend for themselves in the end. If that was what had happened within the castle, in the one place where they had been told they would be safe, with soldiers stationed at every entrance, what did that mean for the rest of the population of Hyrule? The thought conjured up images of burning roofs, trees that had been reduced to ash, and the panic that would have preceded all of that. Was her home already gone? Had the enemy she still had not seen been able to make its way past the Akkala Citadel? Or had the attack come from the west; had they made their way past Rito Village and the archers it was known for? But then again, there was the king, Rhoam, and his insistent belief that his daughter might be safe.

Somewhere up above her, she heard a scream echo through the air, rendering all thoughts about what had happened and what world she would find once she escaped a luxury she could not afford. It did not matter if the king’s words had been nothing other than the last words of an old man who knew he would die before the day was over, not when she could not be sure that her friend would still be alive once she found her.

Every last muscle in her body ached, but she forced herself not to slow down. Reaching the staircase, she all but jumped up the steps, almost sending herself sprawling to the floor as she misjudged the distance between her foot and the next step. But up, she had to get up, so she caught herself, gripping onto the wall and somehow managing to pull herself up by the edge of one of the stones.

Part of the wall had collapsed in the corridor she entered, the rubble lying in a heap to her left as she forced herself not to think too much about how she could see a sliver of the familiar red fabric of the guard’s uniform among the dust and stones. It was not her, she had to believe that. There were hundreds of soldiers and guards within the castle; it would not be her, not when she had not had any reasons for being near the library in the first place.

She had never been more grateful for her friend’s willingness to obey orders, than when she saw the state of the corridor, torn tapestries having fallen to the floor, something red she was not naïve enough to believe could be wine having formed a puddle on the floor. But even as she only needed to look in front of her to see the signs of the battle that was still taking place around her, she knew that it would be much worse below ground, back down where there was no way out.

A corner, her barely avoiding running into the wall in front of her as she struggled to turn, a surprised shout, pain flaring through her chest, and she was lying on the floor. She had scraped her elbows, that was apparent from the feeling of the cold stone floor combined with warm blood trickling down her arm, but considering the fact that she had yet to figure out what to do about the wound to her head, she knew that it was the last thing she should worry about in that moment.

The next second, she looked up, and all thoughts of physical discomfort disappeared from her mind.

She was there. Standing above her, her spear already drawn, was her friend. Had it not been for how the sight of the rubble and the stranger who had been unfortunate enough to be trapped beneath the weight of the collapsed roof had burnt an impression of itself onto her eyelids, she would perhaps have drawn back at the sight of the blood that had stained the blue fabric of her friend’s uniform, but, as it was, the only feeling that filled her as she looked up at the face of her friend was relief that she was not dead, that it could not be her own blood that had left dark spots along the tip of her weapon, not with the way she was able to move without showing any signs of pain as she reached out towards her.

It took perhaps a few moments too long for her to realise what she was waiting for, her friend’s tiny smile growing even more unsure with every passing second, but, finally, her mind caught up with what was happening. Reaching up to take her hand and letting her pull her up, she was unable to shake off the feeling of it not being real, the thought that kept on making her aware of its presence, telling her that this could not be happening, that she would wake up from this nightmare in just a second. But she did not. Instead, she let her arms hang limply by her side as her friend brought her into a hug so tight that she might once have asked her to lessen her grip on her a bit. Now, she let her cling to her, waited as the little laugh that forced its way up her friend’s throat became a sob.

“Hylia, I thought—” her friend gasped, acting the exact same way as when she had dived into the lake for her necklace back when she had only been a recruit for a month, “I heard that they had cut off access to the lower levels, that the ceiling there had caved in during the initial attack. I heard so many things, and you weren’t there…”

“I know,” she mumbled, “I know.” the cook, the girl whose name she had already forgot—if there was even the tiniest bit of truth to the rumours her friend had heard, they were all gone. “I… I was there—on the stairs, I mean—but someone dragged me out in time. He helped me up here.”

“And you are really here?” running her hands down her arms, gripping onto her hands, almost like she thought that she might disappear if she did not hold on so tightly that it felt like the grasp was all that kept her from falling from a ledge, her friend looked directly into her eyes.

Did she look like her? Did her friend see the same kind of despair reflected back at her when she looked into her eyes? She could only guess and hope that the answer was no. At least that way her friend would not have to face the horror of realising that the one person she had made herself believe would be able to make everything all right again with her mere presence might be even more frightened than herself.

The world around her felt almost muted, like she was under water, as she nodded. “Yes, I am.” she did not give herself the chance to stop to see how her friend let out an uneasy breath, instead only noting that her eyes became shiny as she continued. “And we have to leave. Now. The king—he told me that we should be able to flee from this castle by heading towards the docks. There should be a boat that might take us away from here. After that, we have to place as much distance between ourselves and the castle as we possibly can.” she did not add the very last part of the plan, the ‘before it will be too late for us to even try’ or any other such thing. It would not have helped. Not for her and certainly not for her friend, not when they were both standing in the sticky mixture of dust, blood, and crushed glass that covered the floor.

“The king.?” her friend frowned, her gaze settling on her head, almost like she was trying to gauge whether or not she was aware of what she was telling her. “What are you saying? The king has already been evacuated—he should be on the river as we speak, heading towards Rito Village.”

Once, just a few minutes ago, she might have welcomed the signs that there was still a place left in Hyrule where they would be safe, but, now, her friend only made her heart sink lower and lower with every word. It was chaos. That was all she could think about. Pure chaos where no one knew what was true and what was nothing but exaggerated rumours. Still, she tried her best to push the fear back down, hiding it behind a tense smile as she nodded. “Look, we just have to get out now. I know that there is a ship at the docks. _Trust me_.”

But her friend only looked at her, the doubt apparent in her eyes and in the lines that almost looked like they had been etched into her face as the seconds passed at an agonisingly slow pace. Her heart beat in her chest, a thud that sent another wave of pain through her head as she waited and hoped for the best. In the end, it was the sound of another scream, this time sounding like it came from somewhere below them, that made them both spring into action.

Grabbing her arm, it did not take long for her friend to drag her along with her, holding on to not allow her to fall behind as they ran along the tapestry that had been torn from the wall and left as a pile of fabric at the bottom of the wall. “Look,” she said, the words coming out as short sounds, interrupted by her heavy breathing, “I have no idea what you have heard or why you say that you have talked with the king, but if it comes to it, I will trust you over anything else.”

The conclusion was clear, though neither of them said it. They were heading towards the docks.

Hyrule Castle had always been a large structure. In the past, she would have described it as magnificent, every part the little girl who had looked up at the castle on the cliff and struggled to comprehend the fact that not only was all of that meant for her to walk around in, there were also levels carved into the ground to house all the people living inside the castle. Now, the size of Hyrule Castle only meant long corridors that had been left in the darkness, with the odd lantern lying smashed on the ground, her lungs hurting as she forced herself to run faster and faster, and the feeling of being unable to recognise any of the rooms they passed while still knowing that they were getting closer to the docks as the air grew damper.

“Almost there,” her friend gasped, the tiniest hint of a smile making its way onto her face. She must have found some kind of hidden source of strength, for she moved for a moment, wasting energy on looking back at her, “just a little longer, and then we should be—”

“Look out!” she acted without thinking, rushing forward and wrapping her arms around her friend’s waist before digging her feet into the ground and using all the strength she could muster and then a little more to change their trajectory, throwing both of them to the side.

She hit the wall with her shoulder first, pain flaring up through her right arm as white spots danced in front of her eyes. For a moment, she could only stand there, barely held up by her friend and faintly aware of the way her friend was looking down at her, no doubt about to ask just what she was doing.

But then she saw it too. There was nothing else that could explain the sudden silence that filled the air between them. She had to have seen it.

“Hylia.” the word was barely louder than a gasp, and yet, she knew that she would never have been able to miss it, not even as she fought to blink away the dots and the temptation to slip into unconsciousness. “Not now, not when we were so close.”

Her arm ached, but she found the strength to push herself away from the wall. Every last part of her begged her not to look at it again, telling her that nothing had changed since the moment when she had first spotted the monster, but the need to know just what had attacked them was greater than anything else, so she looked.

She regretted it immediately. The creature in front of them towered up above her, its height matching even that of the Goron champion, or at least that was what it felt like as she looked towards it and realised that it was blocking their path to the docks. But it was more than just that, more than just the way it looked almost like every part of it had been made to be purposefully disproportionate to the rest of its body, the long arms making it seem lanky while the short legs gave it an almost stumbling way of moving. None of that was what truly made her lose her fight with the panic she had tried so hard to keep at bay. No, the thing that made her breathe in and out at such a pace that she could almost feel how her body struggled with keeping up was the sight of the club in its hand.

It looked like it consisted of some kind of wood, a crude weapon that was barely more than a couple of nails pushed through a thick branch, but the monster made sure to show just how deadly it could be, swinging it through the air as it took another step towards them. It moved slowly, but as the metres separating them dwindled, there was no doubt in her mind about how that would never be enough to stop it. And still, she could not move. She simply stood there, her left arm still halfway around her friend’s waist as her right arm felt strangely numb.

From somewhere far away, she could hear her friend scream her name, but it was not until she saw the glint of metal catching what little light was left in the corridor that she woke up enough to listen to her.

“You have to run! I will distract it, but you have to promise me that you will make it to the docks!” moving backwards, her friend pushed her arm from her waist, the distance between them allowing her to draw her spear. “Promise me that you will run, I am begging you!”

The spear was a weapon. She had known that before, of course she had, but it was not until then that the meaning of the word fully dawned on her. Her friend was intending to fight the monster; she was planning to go against it, all to buy her the time she would need to reach the docks. More than anything, she wanted to protest, to scream at her that she was not leaving her now, but as she looked from the tip of the spear and the way her friend’s knuckles had turned white, her grip on her weapon being that of someone who knew she was about to head into her last battle, to her own arm and the torn fabric of her dress, she knew that she would only be in the way.

“I will.”

Maybe her friend was relieved that she did not have to argue with her. Perhaps she was really, deep down, disappointed that they would not stay together until the end. There was no way of knowing, not when her friend turned around the instant she had got her answer, seemingly trying to measure the distance between the two of them and the monster. And then, almost like she only thought of it then, she turned back around, completing the circle to look back over at her. “I—” she let out a sigh, the twitch running along her arm letting her know that, had they been in any other situation, she would have hugged her goodbye, “I love you. I will come and find you later, I promise you that much. Just get out of here alive, and then we will find each other.” she did not give her the chance to respond, simply twirling in mid-air, a little jump having allowed her to gain a bit of momentum before she was once again facing the monster.

It was closer to them than what she had thought. Feeling almost oddly detached from what was happening, she was able to state that she had not truly realised just how close they had come to being within the reach of the club when she had thrown herself to the side and dragged her friend with her. A couple of seconds, and it would all have been over. But her friend did not seem to give that a second thought as she sprinted towards the creature, spear held high. Letting out a roar, she pushed the spear forward, pushing off the floor as she continued all the way through the motion.

In another world, it would have been enough to end the battle in an instant. As terrifying as the monster was, there was no trace of armour to be found on it. And yet, as she looked at it, throwing a short glance towards her friend and the way she had landed on the ground again, panting slightly as she pulled her spear towards her, readying herself for repeating the movement, it was clear that the tip of the spear had only been a minor annoyance to it.

With an expression almost like it could not believe that she had even tried to attack it, the monster reached out towards the spear. It grabbed it, and for a moment that felt like ages, she was almost certain that her friend was going to hold onto her end of it, stubborn to the end. She did not have the air necessary to let out a sigh of relief when her friend realised that she was fighting a losing battle, abandoning the spear mere moments before the monster had flung it towards the wall, letting out a roar in the process.

She had to do something. She should run, she should yell, try to distract it and give her friend a chance to escape. But she did none that. Instead, she watched as her friend took a step backwards, the fear shining through on her face.

“Stop!” her voice sounded unfamiliar to her, loud and strong as she stepped forwards. Really, had it not been for the fact that she saw her friend turn to look at her, her eyes wide with fear, she would not have believed that she had been the one to say it. But she had, and the creature had turned around, looking between her and her friend for a couple of seconds before it finally seemed to decide that the newest prey was more interesting, taking a heavy step towards her. For once, she was almost grateful for how quickly her heart was beating as the sound of it was almost enough to drown out the heavy footfalls, giving her the courage she needed to continue. “Yeah, I am talking to you, you ugly…” her sentence trailed off, but it did not matter, she saw that in the way the monster continued to walk towards her, swinging its club from side to side.

Her friend screamed as she narrowly avoided the attack, stumbling backwards and feeling the gust of wind force her further back. Her friend was screaming her name, yelling at her to stop and let her continue with her plan, allowing her to die in her stead, but it was almost like she was not quite hearing her, her brain registering the sound, but failing to deliver the meaning of it to her. That was the only explanation she could find for how she was able to continue, taking a quick series of steps backwards as she continued to hurl insult after insult at the monster. “You dumb, horrible, piece of…” she cast a glance backwards, her eyes immediately drawn towards the comforting glint of metal. To think that there would ever be a time where she would find joy in seeing a sword lying on the ground, held there by the loose grip of hand that stuck out of a pile of rubble. It would have been unthinkable just that morning, but now, she dived for it, feeling how the monster launched another attack.

Closing her hand around the hilt of the sword, she continued forwards, struggling to get back onto her feet. Hitting the wall to her right, she felt how easy it would be to let it all end, to give in, but, somehow, she was able to force herself up, holding up the sword in what was undoubtedly not a proper way of guarding herself. Already, she could feel her arm shake, the weight of the weapon almost being too much for her, but she remained standing, turning around to face the monster. At the very least, she would be able to give it a reason to remember her, if it was capable of that much.

“If you want to kill me, you will have to try harder than that!” there were no logical thoughts behind her yelling, no plan or idea of how it would allow her to escape. As she stood there, all she could think was that she would not give up without a fight.

Cutting a line through the air with an angry movement of her arm, pain shooting through her right side, she took another step backwards. The monster followed, clearly beginning to quicken its pace as it lifted up its club. Despite everything, she could not keep a smile from forming on her face. Good. It would follow her. Perhaps that, the distraction she was able to create despite her lack of abilities with a weapon, would be enough to give her friend the chance to escape. The king of Hyrule had given her his path to safety, and now, she would pass that present on to her friend.

The hope was torn apart the next second. With a guttural scream, her friend ran forwards, aiming the tip of her spear directly at the monster’s back. From her spot directly within the monster’s field of vision, she heard herself scream, gesturing towards her friend to give up and seize the chance she was offering her, but it was already too late. The attack landed, the monster letting out a roar. It must have come as a surprise to it that they would be foolish enough to not flee from it. That, or perhaps it was merely growing tired of them, wishing to end the fight already.

The creature turned around with a single, surprisingly agile movement, barely leaving her friend with enough time to run back before the club was swung a second time. And then, just as the monster lifted its arms, waiting for a moment before it brought down the club, making the entire corridor shake and raining dust down from above as it hit the floor, she caught her best friend’s eye. A blink, and she knew that they had agreed to the plan.

They attacked. Again and again, they ran forwards, trying their best to dive beneath the arm of the monster to get a chance to slash and push their weapons towards it, before they would be forced back both by the way it reached out towards them as well as the threat of the club it was still swinging towards them. When one was forced backwards, backing up against the wall, the other would be there, attacking from the other side, forcing the monster to turn around.

She did not know how long the battle lasted for. With her aching arms and the sword that was feeling almost heavier than herself, shaking in her grasp as she fought to maintain her grip on it, she wanted to say that it had been hours of moving back and forth in their fight, but if she had to listen to her heartbeat and try to gauge how many seconds it took for her to move closer to the monster, she knew that it could only be a matter of minutes. A few minutes, and she was already exhausted, her steps becoming less and less sure with every time she was forced back. More than once, she felt how the rubble on the floor was almost enough to catch her step, sending her falling backwards. It was nothing but pure, dumb luck and a couple of steps backwards that kept her standing.

But still, for a moment, she almost though that they would make it. As her friend thrust the spear forwards, seemingly hitting a vulnerable spot, making the monster turn around, its hand instantly rising to cover the wound just beneath its ribcage, she felt the joy flowing through her, giving her a newfound sense of energy. They just had to continue this for a little longer. A couple more hits like that, and they might make it.

She was beginning to hope, which, of course, meant that it all came to an end moments later.

It all happened far too quickly for her to do anything. One second, she was lifting up her sword, her sweaty palms making it difficult for her to maintain a secure grip on the hilt, and the next, her world exploded, white-hot pain taking its place.

Her ears rang as she was thrown through the air, for a moment almost able to believe that she was weightless before the wall stopped her path, but she still heard her friend’s scream over the crunch of hitting a surface that did not budge, sending her to the floor in a pile of pain and the need to continue to breathe even though her lungs felt like they were on fire. Breathe; she just had to remember how to breathe.

From somewhere far away, she was vaguely aware of how the ground beneath her was shaking, something heavy drawing nearer. But although she knew that she should get up, that she should move, crawl away if that was what it would take, she could not find the strength. In those few seconds, it felt almost like it all bled together, the sharp sting from the back of her head, the dull throb that shot through her arm, and the fire in her chest. As she forced herself gaze up, she saw that the same was the case for the world around her, the colours having disappeared, almost like they had never been there at all, leaving nothing behind but the faint light coming from above her, casting a long shadow over her as the silhouette of the monster towered up above her.

More than anything, she wished to look at her friend. Even if she would die now, it would not be so bad if she could at least look at her one last time and try to let her know that it was all right, that she would not regret her actions if it would be enough to give her friend the chance to run. But she could not see her; the monster was blocking her view, the pain keeping her from leaning to the side to catch one last glimpse of what she hoped would be her retreating figure.

So she remained where she was, lying on the floor as she waited for the end to come to her. At least it was quick, her senses already fading away as she heard how the club was brought down, the gust of wind hitting her face before she succumbed to the darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! If you want to find me, I am [theseventhsage](https://theseventhsage.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr.


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